Ukiah City Council approves new budget

The Ukiah City Council Wednesday unanimously approved a $15.3 million budget for the next fiscal year, the first prepared by new Finance Director Karen Scalabrini.

"One of the complaints I heard was that you wanted more transparency," Scalabrini told the council during a budget hearing Tuesday, explaining that the most recent budget had the general fund broken up into departments in a way that hadn't been done in the past.

"This offers more clarity and transparency, and we will start direct-charging of funds so you can see exactly (from where the money is being spent). In the future, if we get an invoice that doesn't relate to the General Fund, it won't get charged to the General Fund, then allocated (to another department) afterward."

Scalabrini said she planned to make department spending even easier to identify and track with something known as a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR, that will not only break out the revenues and expenditures for all the funds, it will show a 10-year history for them, as well.

"Karen and I believe the time has arrived for this community to have a little more transparency," said City Manager Jane Chambers. "Karen is completely capable of doing it and she will get it done, I have no doubt. That's one of the reasons why Karen's here.

"But it is going to take her a few months," Chambers continued. "So far, we've made a huge stab at sorting through what used to be a far less transparent document, and as we work with it we'll all be able to appreciate that more and more."

Both Chambers and Scalabrini then added that "there was nothing wrong with the past financial documents."

"Previous staff members, none of which are here, have told us that that was too complicated, that it would take a lot of staff time to figure out," said Mayor Phil Baldwin, asking Council member Doug Crane if that was his recollection as well.

"Yes, and I didn't buy it," said Crane, adding that he did not want to approve the budget until certain numbers were cleared up.

Baldwin suggested holding another meeting before voting on the budget.

"In about six hours, we discussed a $15 million budget," Baldwin said. "Could it be valuable to wait until Tuesday to adopt a budget?"

Scalabrini said the council needed to take action on the budget before June 30, or city staff would no longer be able "to cut checks and make payments through the city."

The council then decided to meet again at the final scheduled budget hearing Wednesday afternoon and unanimously approved the budget.